Measurement and evaluation of human factor training in nuclear power plants

The purpose of this study is to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of human factor training aimed at awareness and behavioral changes, conducted by electric power company for the nuclear power plant staff. As the first step, the researcher investigated recent trends in training measurement and evaluation methods in the United States. It was found that many instances of training measurement/evaluation had been reported, and that the ROI model was the mainstream method for such measurement and evaluation. However, there had been no instances reported in which the effectiveness of human factor training for plant staff had been measured. The researcher therefore developed a new questionnaire-type of effectiveness measurement/evaluation method, based on the framework of the ROI model. Two-years of research was then conducted, in which the effectiveness of a human factor training program was measured using the newly developed method. This research revealed that participants' overall satisfaction and knowledge/skill acquisition levels were high. The percentage of participants who demonstrated awareness/behavioral change after returning to the workplace increased from 50% at first measurement to 81% at second measurement. It can therefore be concluded that the effectiveness of the second training is greater than that of the first training. Use of the new effectiveness measurement/evaluation method will enable quantification of human factor training effectiveness and help improve training quality. (author)